I give you....The Top Ten

I have been sharing with you my all time favorite bands. My personal favorites in my opinion meaning not necessarily my idea of the overall, objective best bands of all time. I have counted down from 25 to 11 VH1 style. Today we crack open the Top Ten. I hope you enjoy.

Here is a recap:
25)Public Enemy
24)Nine Inch Nails
23)Huey Lewis and the News
22)Hanzel Und Gretyl
21)Nirvana
20)Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
19)The Who
18)Sublime
17)Outkast
16)Pink Floyd
15)Jane's Addiction
14)Muse
13)The Cars
12)The Hollies
11)Audioslave

The Top Ten
10) Linkin Park: I am partly embarrassed to list this band in my top ten as a 33 year old male. I should be over this kind of manufactured rage rock with a wannabe rapper mixed in shouldn't I? Regardless of your answer, the reality is that I truly enjoy this band. I also enjoy their live performance too. The feelings of self loathing, isolation, angst and depression still home believe it or not. I also enjoy the energy and loudness. My parents passed down a theory to me. You may agree. It is that everybody has a period of life they are most comfortable with and they tend to live their life as one would during that period regardless of their chronological age. This is for another post on another day, but my point here is my period would be the 18-25 range. So I still hang on to bands like this for that reason.

While I enjoy most of Minutes To Midnight, Linkin Park's first two albums are their best. I choose to ignore the Jay-Z experimentation although more power to them for venturing into other forms of music they enjoy. Hybrid Theory seemed to have more pointless screaming than Meteora but both are good listens all the way through. "Don't Stay" has lyrics that fit my life at the time I began listening to it much like Muse's "Time is Running Out." Despite the radio's urge to overkill many of their songs, I managed to avoid the Linkin Park fatigue many others have. In addition, I have fond memories listening to Linkin Park with my brother and talking about their albums and the feelings the songs evoked. We also enjoyed two of their shows together and both were very fun. So Linkin Park and my bro have a particular connection for me like The Who and my dad making them a personal top band.

9)Stone Temple Pilots: Throughout high school I was consumed with rap music. Groups like Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions sparked my interest in the civil rights movements and the black, urban experience I was so clueless about. A Tribe Called Quest drew me in with their clever, creative lyrics and rhymes over classic beats. Eric B. and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Ice Cube, Geto Boys, Wu Tang Clan and others appealed to me because they just seemed cool.

Then the summer of 1993 and college came. While the seeds of rock already were planted with Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten was about to play the same role, I discovered Core by Stone Temple Pilots and the free fall out of rap and into rock began. The whole Seattle grunge vibe kicked in and I bought in. I never grew long hair or wore boots and a flannel shirt regularly, but I fell in love with Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam and some Soundgarden. Even though STP wasn't from Seattle, they were lumped in with those bands because of their sound and timing.

Core was one of those albums I listened to over and over and over again without getting tired of it. "Plush" was epic as an anthem for me. I had no idea what Scott Weiland meant in those heroin induced lyrics, but they just fit together so well. Top to bottom the intensity and deep, powerful sound of the album is still one of my favorites to listen to. The follow up, Purple was much more laid back, mellow album but still top notch. Again, top to bottom, I would listen to it without skipping a track. their live shows were fun and entertaining. They played the good songs whether they were a hit or not. Weiland knew how to front a band making it a show. Unfortunately, the same fuel that led to those odd lyrics and entertaining shows also led to the band's demise. In fact, like any addiction, it continued with him into his other band, Velvet Revolver whom I also enjoyed over the years.

8)The Offspring: I can't ignore The Offspring's role in my free fall to rock. At first, my brother went head over heels with Dexter and the crew. The speed and sophomoric lyrics appealed to him to the point that he played this band 24-7-365 literally. I was reluctant to dive into the whole pop punk trend that The Offspring and Green Day fronted in the mid 90s as Smash and Dookie hit the big time. But Smash's pull got me. The more I listened to it, the more I fell in love with it.

I followed my brother's lead seeking out their earlier albums from a self-titled import that included "Jennifer Lost the War" and Tehran" and Ignition that had so many good tracks from "Kick Him When He's Down" to my personal favorite Offspring tune, "Dirty Magic." As time went on, they continued to put out more and more albums. I enjoyed just about everyone. Many fans began to peel off as they grew up and the songs began to blend together for their liking. The Offspring would tend to put out some catchy gimmick song on every album that inevitably pull in fringe listeners to the dismay of their fans. Songs like "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" where even popular in the 'hood where I taught middle school. Apparently, I was pretty fly for a white guy from all the times I heard it. Of course, I was the only white guy they could sing that to so I guess I got tagged by default. Or maybe sarcasm. In that same vain, "Original Prankster" came out and so on. I overlook those decisions because I just love their other stuff so much. When I looked in my itunes catalog to get a vibe of who I had the most songs from, helping me gauge this countdown, The Offspring had page after page of songs. I just couldn't keep from burning all of them on my computer. As far as their live shows, the earlier I saw them and the smaller the venue, the better they were. Too much Jim Beam ruined one good show but otherwise, every show at Newport in Columbus, was a good one. The reason they are ranked so high is because of the sheer volume of songs I enjoy. Also the pleasant memories of listening to them throughout college. I could still put any one of their albums in and enjoy the whole thing.


7)A Tribe Called Quest: I just can't say enough about Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammud. I came across their first album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm in 11th grade and fell in love with the beats and rhymes. The more I listened the more I enjoyed the lyrics and appreciated the creativity. The chemistry of Phife and Q-Tip was/is a perfect 10. Each album had its own character. Their live shows were outstanding. I always walked out feeling like I just saw a great show. They were able to convey a kind of energy and emotion you don't get at a rock show. Once again, every song on every album is good. I can listen to any of their first four albums all the way through without skipping. Low End Theory is their best album with songs like "Check the Rhime," "Scenerio" and "Excursions" are the best from that album, but there is so much more. "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" and "Bonita Applebum" are my two favorites from their first album, People's Instinctive Travels... but again, there are so many others I enjoy. Midnight Marauders is packed full of jams as well. Tribe was so good at writing creative songs that were enjoyable to listen to. At the same time they maintained a certain amount of street credibility without lowering to trashy, degrading lyrics rapping about relevant issues intellectually with candid, real, legitimate commentary and opinion.


6)Fun Lovin' Criminals: Again, my brother fell in love with this band before I did. I knew of them earlier but never fell in love. I had heard "Scooby Snacks" and thought it was a clever, cool song. But once my brother discovered them on his own and fell in love, I heard more and more of them at our parties or casual evenings of hanging out with friends. Soon they grew on me. Quickly, I saw how my brother loved them so much. They were just a cool trio of guys. Their songs were so mellow and laid back. Smooth. Cool. What else can I say? Their first album I fell in love with called, Come Find Yourself is another top to bottom classic. We saw them perform at Ohio Stadium before U2 and my bro had front row seats (bastard!). It was a cool show. I was pessimistic about them handling a huge venue like that but they pulled it off. From there, the following album 100% Colombian continued the list of great tunes. The first track off of ...Find Yourself, "Fun Lovin' Criminal" is by far my favorite, but both those albums are top to bottom deep again. You have to be to be in my top ten. My bro continues to introduce me to more of their stuff. Their style, cool, smooth lyrics and look are all so strong. There may not be a better band to put in the car as you drive down the road with the top down and the stereo playing on a warm late spring day.



So that just leaves us with one more installment of Huey's Top Ten Bands of All Time. Enjoy this one and let me know if I'm crazy or if you are feeling this list too. What are your top 5 before I reveal mine? Let's compare.

Rap Music

Back in high school I went through a phase in which I listened to a lot of rap music. In my opinion, this was the high point in the genre. I personally feel as though the music from this genre has gone downhill since the mid 90's and has never regained the quality it once demonstrated. I could take this blog in another direction to examine my personal perspective and how my opinion could be a function of age, and lack of exposure to most of the rap music industry as opposed to a legitimate decline in quality of hip hop, but instead I will acknowledge it here and move on to more light hearted discussion.

My quick disclaimer is this: The rap I enjoyed in the late 80's and the early, pre-gangsta rap period was not necessarily what was marketed to the masses. I agree that the MC Hammers, Vanilla Ices, Sir Mix-a-lots, Fat Boys, Tone Locs et al of the rap genre were not all that great. But there were artists who were marketed to the masses along with others that may have not been so "famous." Therefore, since today I only know of the mass marketed (is that even a word?), I could be unaware of good, poetic, rhythmic rap music being written and produced today.

My point of this blog post is to share with you some artists and songs that I have always enjoyed and consider "quality" rap the way it should be. No "G's up Ho's down," "pop a cap in yo ass" garbage. While it was fun to party to Snoop Dog's "Doggystyle" and I had my Dr. Dre, NWA, Ice Cube phase, I consider good music to have clever or meaningful lyrics. I think good rap has solid, driving beats. It has rhythm that makes you want to groove and move. I consider it to be poetic at times but not always.

Here are some artists, songs and albums I have always enoyed:
Pharcyde..."Passin' Me By" This is a song I have always considered on of my top 5 favorite rap songs ever. The vibe of the song, the rhymes, the sonic elements are all so good. It never gets old.

Public Enemy.... So much about this group is good. Flavor Flav???? Hmmmm. But Chuck D. is an intelligent, strong individual with powerful lyrics and a message that he delivers with a voice just as powerful. Their controversial political rap taught me more about the black experience and their view of the civil rights movement than anything I learned in school. His stuff made me think and contributed to my motivation to read Malcolm X's autobiography (which every impressionable teenager did when Spike Lee's movie with Denzel Washington came out) and teach in the city like I have been doing for a decade now as opposed to staying the the comfortable suburbs.

Boogie Down Productions......In the same vain as Public Enemy, BDP raised awareness to the black experience in the U.S. KRS-1, like Chuck D. delivered powerful messages through strong lyrics, beats and voice.

Eric B. and Rakim....Probably the best voice in rap music was Rakim. His voice alone was an instrument. Eric B. mixed wicked beats behind the intense lyrics of Rakim. Microphone Fiend is a classic with its driving, slamming beats. His egotistical lyrics were par for the course at that time when rappers would spar back and forth with words not bullets. In their songs, they would declare their greatness over other rappers, "your beats are whack while my lyrics are all that." The beginning of the end of my enjoyment of rap was when the next generation of rappers (Biggy, TuPac, P. Diddy, Ja Rule and more) began killing people for real. The competitive banter back and forth and the rivalries went too far. I know there is much more to this, but as a fan that lost me.

A Tribe Called Quest...The single best rap group EVER in my mind. Q-Tip is the smoothest, most clever, poetic lyricist I have ever heard. Their mellow vibe, the funny, catchy rhymes were great. The themes of their music varied and showed diversity. Fife Dog was an excellent compliment to Q-Tip's lead. Every album carried itself with song after song that keeps me coming back. The individual albums carried themselves while staying true to the group itself. Each was unique but still in the same vain as the others. They managed to maintain their "street cred" without stooping to violence and cheap, degrading sex. Their live shows were some of the best shows I have experienced across every genre. You felt like you were part of the show as you contributed to the energy and vibe.

These are several rap artisits I really enjoy. I also have been a big fan of Big Daddy Kane, D-Nice, Ice Cube, Wu Tang Clan (yes, contradicting my earlier statements regarding violence and cheap, degrading sex),and of course Ol' Dirty Bastard, EPMD, Black Sheep to name a few.